It is also certain that the devils, by the mere light of nature, know what passes amongst us, as appears by the correspondence they hold with magicians, and by their being our accusers, Rev. xii. 10. Therefore we cannot reasonably question, but that the saints in heaven know the petitions which we address unto them. 5thly, In fine, because it is weak reasoning to argue from our corporal hearing (the object of which being sound, that is, a motion or undulation of the air, cannot reach beyond a certain distance) to the hearing of spirits, which is independent on sound, and, consequently, independent of distance: though the manner of it be hard enough to explicate to those who know no other hearing but that of the corporal one. Have you any other warrant in Scripture for the invocation of angels and saints ? Yes; we have the example of God's best servants. Thus Jacob, Gen. xlviii. 15, 16, begs the blessing of his angel guardian for his two grandsons, Ephraim and Manasseh. "God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God which fed me all my life long until this day, the angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads." The same Jacob, Hosea xii. 4, "wept and made supplication to an angel." And St. John, Rev. i. 4, writing to the seven churches of Asia, petitions for the intercession of the seven chief angels in their favour. "Grace be unto you, and peace from him, which is, and which was, and which is to come, and from the seven spirits which are before his throne." That Popery should be at such excessive pains to make her adorers believe it is their duty to invoke the assistance of her saints is no wonder; and the more especially since our Protestant Reformation of Saint-making, among other abuses of her Church, has almost ruined her trade in this single article. We do not now hear of the daily manufacture of a batch of Popish saints for particular occasions, lest heretical Protestants should expose the hoax. Well, therefore, may Popery take especial care of the stock, ample as it is, with which she has provided herself in the most flourishing times of superstition and bigotry. The first question is proposed-“ Do (Roman) Catholics pray to Saints?" This plain question, we should have thought, might, from the catechism of a tyro, have been plainly answered: but, no; that would not have done "Your only peace-maker," an if, was necessary, and an "if" we have accordingly, by which the sense of the answer is reduced to this :-If you mean, by not doing, that which we really do; and by doing, that which we really do not, why then it is quite clear, in this sense, it is good and profitable to pray to our own Saints, which we have purposely made for our own especial purposes. We readily admit the next long passage, until we arrive at the Pope's logic; that is, we admit that the prayer of a righteous man availeth much, BECAUSE THE SCRIPTURES TELL U3 SO; but we deny the Pope's "now-if-it-be-acceptable" part of it, because the Scriptures are opposed to such idolatrous worship (See p. 163,4). Protestants are again spoken of as acting similarly to Papists (!), in desiring the prayers of the congregation*. The difference between the Protestant and the Papist in their worship is this:—the former take the Scriptures for their rule of faith, professing their belief that these (See Church Article, VI.) contain all things necessary to salvation; the latter are taught to believe that their salvation is vested in Popery. We are next informed, that by praying to Papal saints (we particularize these, since if there had not been any such the true saints of God would not, at the present day, have been prayed to at all), there is no danger of giving them the honour due to the Almighty. This must be a very fortunate circumstance, if true, and can only have been secured by a Popish miracle; since the most illiterate of Papists would not otherwise possess discrimination to determine the precise degree of "honour" they were to pay, and the point at which they should stop. Our readers will excuse our passing over the Pope's logical deductions-(perhaps they may think we have already given enough of these?)-until we arrive at the "I exhort, therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men."—Paul's 1st Epist. to Tim. ii. 1. extract from St. Luke: the chapter (15th) from which it is taken, records the parables of the Lost Sheep and the Prodigal Son, in which our Saviour uses the words quoted above: but he does not say that this joy shall be evinced until the penitent receives his reward in heaven. The expression, as it stands in the 9th verse (as quoted by the Pope) is the second time it is stated by our Lord; and to prove that our interpretation of it is correct, we will quote the 7th :-" I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth more than over ninetyand-nine just persons which need no repentance." And this is what Popery adduces in proof of Saints having a knowledge of every penitent on earth! The single expression of Paul, "We are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men," is eagerly seized on by the Pope, who seems to have forgotten the quotation he himself has made (p. 157) from Heb. i. 14, where Paul says the angels" are sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation." Were not, we ask, the sufferings of the Apostles visible to these spirits upon earth ?-St. Paul, however, decides the point in question much more clearly, whe ther Papists will believe him not. What intercession of saints and angels is deemed necessary in this positive declaration-There is one God, and one Mediator BETWEEN GOD AND MAN, the man CHRIST JESUS? (1 Tim. ii. 5). Popery dare not (publicly) say our quotations are incorrect-let Papists read the Scriptures, and learn true Christianity. 4thly. The Pope speaks of his suppositions-with these we will have nothing to do, but adhere to the facts of Christ's doctrine. No believer in HIM ever denied that the Almighty has often bestowed superhuman knowledge upon his creatures; but that "Therefore we cannot reasonably question, but that the Saints in heaven know the petitions which we address to them," is, we think, a most unreasonable way of begging or insisting-upon a conclusion so obviously false, that we cannot, by any means, concede it*. Is it because the Apostles were gifted with the spirit of the Holy Ghost, that we are to cast aside their inerrant commands for the unscriptural doctrines of Popery? If this be not what the Pope means, let it be shown wherein Christ or his Apostles com mands what he says, and we will then readily admit its truth. We notice the fifth "because," because it is the best reason, or rather the only good reason we have yet met with throughout the whole "Grounds" of Popery; and, with so good a philosophical reason before us, it would seem uncandid to pass it over in silence. We, however, must beg to remark, that Protestants do not deny that their prayers to Saints (did they offer up any) would not avail in consequence of their distance from us; but because the SUPREME has commanded that the sacrifice of a penitent heart should be offered to HIMSELF ALONE through the merits of our Redeemer. We are told, lastly, the Pope and Doctor having fagged hard through three long chapters on this work of forbidden will-worship-that Jacob begged a blessing of his angel guardian-that guardian angel was GOD HIMSELF, as it is expressed in the passage quoted: "The God which fed me all my life long," &c.-The angel was CHRIST, who often appeared before he took upon himself human nature (p. 167). The same Jacob, says the Pope, when quoting Hosea, "made supplications to an angel," and it was to the same angel (CHRIST) to which Hosea alludes. The benediction of St. John to the seven churches of Asia is certainly not the most applicable text that Popery might have found in the Revelations relating to herself and Christian saints; and when these Revelations were written, a Popish saint had The texts referred to in this paragraph are as unfairly quoted as usual: John (1 Epist. iii. 2) says, "It doth not yet appear what we shall be; but when He shall appear we shall be like him." N never existed. It is the impious spirit of Popery alone which has commanded her followers to pray to God's creatures instead of their Creator-a spirit which Saint John seems expressly to speak of when he thus predicts Antichrist:— (Rev. xvii.)—I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet-coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, &c.; and the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet-colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornications; and upon her forehead was written, MYSTERY, BABYLON the Great, The MOTHER OF HARLOTS, and ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH; and I saw the woman DRUNKEN WITH THE BLOOD OF THE SAINTS, AND WITH THE BLOOD OF THE MAR TYRS OF JESUS, &c. It is these, and such as these explicit declarations of the Apostles and their divine Master, that has caused Popery to forbid their perusal to those whom she beguiles by her mystery of "opening the gates of heaven" to the creatures of her will. Let Popery, for once, be candid, and say, does she herself believe that out of two hundred reflecting Papists she would find two individuals who would vary in their interpretations of the above extract. Surely it is quite as clear as the last few lines of her present "Section?" Of Relics. What do you mean by Relics? n olite rt le The bodies or bones of saints, or any thing else that has belonged to them. What grounds have you for paying a veneration to the relics of the saints? first bate mal Have you any instances in scripture of miracles done by relics ? |